Melodeoit



G. 0. SPENGE. MBLODB'ON.

Pmm-,ed me. 23, 1856.

"UNITED IITJNT (EFITCE,

G. O. SPENCE, OF ELMIRA, NEIV YORK.

MELODEON.

Specfication of Letters Patent No.

To ali whom fit 'may concem:

Be it known that I, GIDEON O. SPENoE, of Elmira, in the county of Chemung and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Melodeons and other Beed Instruments; and I do hereby declare that the following is a. full, clear, and eXact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the anneXed drawings, making part of the specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The same letters refer to like parts.

It is well known that a. great deficiency has heretofore existed in the melodeon, in its incapacity to admit of the performer produoing a competent diminuendo at pleasure, or as the inusic may require. My improvement is designed to obviate this objection, by placing the instrument completely under the control of the performer.

To render the nature of the 'improvement more readily understood, I will explain the means by which a. note or tone is produced upon this species of reed instrument.

Fig. l is a vertical section through the bellows and reed-board of a melodeon. A is the receiver. B the exhaust chambers or bellows. This operates as an air pump in exhausting the receiver, being connected with the pedal c by-the rod D. The action of the foot of the performer on the pedal puts the eXhauster in motion, and a vacuum begins to form in the receiver. As this vacuum is formed, the receiver collapses from the pressure of external atmosphere, and by so doing the lower board or partition E rises, the center partition F being stationary. To counteract the external pressure and keep the air within the receiver sufliciently rarefied to produce a strong draft through the reed, the springs I, I, are placed in the receiver.

As soon as this vacuum begins to form, a note may be produced by touching one of the keys, G, which opens the valve H, in the reed board, allowing the external air to pass through the reed into the receiver.

It will be at once seen that the strength of the tone depends upon the force With Which the current of air is driven through the reed, causing it to vibrate more or less 16,296, dated December 23, 1856.

violently, and this force depends upon the degree of exhaustion of the air from the receiver. If the tone be slight, the vigorous action of the pedal will increase it, producing the cresendo as desired, but if it be desired to produce a diminuendo when the receiver is nearly exhausted the performer must wait until the receiver has sutficiently filled, by the airpassing through the reed, to diminish the external pressure, and thereby cause the tone to diminish in proportion. This is a great obstacle to the execution of soft and expressive passages, and indeed very embarrassing to the performer as it interrupts the regular time of the music. The pressure of the springs being arbitrary the performer must bide his time till the balance between the external and internal pressure is suficiently restored to produce the desired effect. If in a forte passage the performer wishes to produce adiminuendo, by suddenly counteracting the pressure of the springs I, I, that desirable result is effected, inasmuch as the force. of the passage of air through the reed depends then solely upon the raretied state of the receiver.

In this my improvement consists. I attach a strong cord J to the bottom of the receiver, pass it over the pulley K, which is attached to the back frame of the instrument, from whence it descends to the third pedal Ii. This pedal is construeted in two parts, each being Connected by a rack segment m, me, and move on the pinions 71, n. Pressing the foot downward on the pedal draws the cord J over the pulley, raising the bottom of the receiver thereby exerting a counterforce to that of the springs I, I.

In playing a loud passage, the receiver ecomes nearly exhausted, and the springs press with a force which produces a powerful suction, through the reed. The performer can then, by placing his foot on the third pedal, diminish that suction until as soft a tone as he desires is produced. By increasing the pressure on the pedal, the diminuendo is produced, prolonged or varied at pleasure; or he can arrest the loud tone on the instant and produce a crescendo from the softest pianissimo, and any modulation which the spirit or pathos of the piece may require, thus making the instrument receiver of melodeons for facilitating the perfectly subservient to the Will of the perproduction of the crescendo and diminuendo 10 former. in the manner, and for the purpose herein Fig. 2 is a plan view of the pedals. fully set forth. 5 O, isthe pedal for operating the Valve P. G. O. SPENCE.

WVhat I claim as my invention, and for WVit-nesses: Which I desire to Secure Letters Patent, is: JOHN LAMORUEX,

The application of the third pedal to the DANIEL B. SMITH. 

